Farrell v. Board of Com'rs, Lemhi County
| Decision Date | 27 December 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 27546.,27546. |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
| Parties | Patrick J. FARRELL, Jr. and Kathleen D. Farrell, husband and wife, Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF LEMHI COUNTY, Idaho, governing body of a political subdivision of the State of Idaho; Fraser M. Madill; James B. Madill; Elizabeth Susan Madill Jones; Mary Anne Madill; Margaret J. Madill; Patrick Madill; Paula Mentzer; Mary M. Madill, Defendants-Appellants, and Wayne England and Margaret England, husband and wife, Thomas B. Riley and Lee Anne Hutcheson Riley, husband and wife; Thomas Eugene Black; Frederick C. Lyon; Jeanne James; Donald E. Boyle, and John Does 1-10 and Entities A-Z being unknown persons or entities claiming an interest in real property owned by Plaintiff in Lemhi County, Defendants, and Friends of Indian Creek Road, Intervenor Defendant-Appellant. |
Givens Pursley, LLC, Boise, for appellant. Christopher H. Meyer argued.
Millemann, Pittenger, McMahan & Pemberton LLP, McCall, for respondent. Steven J. Millemann argued.
This is a quiet title action in which a ranch owner seeks to quiet title to a portion of Indian Creek Road in Lemhi County. On cross-motions for summary judgment the district court granted the ranch owner's motion.
This action was brought by James Bower, who owned the Indian Creek Guest Ranch (Guest Ranch). However, he sold the Guest Ranch to Patrick J. Farrell, Jr. and Kathleen D. Farrell who have been substituted. Collectively, Bower and the Farrells are referred to as the "Ranch Owners." The Ranch Owners brought a quiet title action against the Lemhi County Board of Commissioners and various named and unnamed property owners uproad from the Guest Ranch. Eight of the owners are named Madill and are referred to collectively. A group called Friends of Indian Creek Road sought to intervene. Their motion was denied. Lemhi, the Friends of Indian Creek and the Madills are referred to collectively as the "Road Users."
The Road Users maintain that Indian Creek Road is the only convenient means of access to "numerous" properties uproad from the Guest Ranch. The Ranch Owners have blocked the road, and it is falling into disrepair. However, the U.S. Forest Service has committed to repair the road if it is declared public. The Road Users also assert that 32,000 acres of National Forest land can be accessed by the road which they say is used by hunters, fishers, hikers, snowmobilers and explorers. The Road Users assert that there is only one other road to those Forest Service lands, which is much more difficult to pass and blocked by snow much of the year. The Ranch Owners claim that there are three roads providing alternative access to the upstream properties, although they admit that they are less preferable due to their length and steepness.
The parties agree that the original road was constructed circa 1901 by three miners, who filed a petition that year with Lemhi County quitclaiming and allowing the County to accept it as a County road. Later, homesteaders settled the public lands around the road. The plats describe Indian Creek Road crossing the properties. Three of those homestead patents now constitute the 119-acre Guest Ranch. The Ranch Owners state that the plat was never converted into a metes and bounds survey, and that there is no recorded document with the Lemhi County Recorder's office establishing, laying out or claiming the Indian Creek Road as a County Road.
The Ranch Owners filed their complaint to quiet title on November 6, 1996. After discovery, various parties filed summary judgment motions on road creation and abandonment issues. Those motions were disposed of in four memorandum decisions.
On August 4, 1998, Bower and the Chairman of the Lemhi County Board of Commissioners signed a stipulation for settlement. The Madills objected, but the district court denied their motion to invalidate the County's stipulation. However, on July 26, 1999, Lemhi County adopted a resolution declaring the stipulation unauthorized and void. The County then joined in attempting to set aside the stipulation. The district court denied a motion for reconsideration by the Madills on the stipulation issue. Subsequently, the district court ruled against Road Users on the stipulation issue. That decision disposed of the cross-motions and also denied the Friends of Indian Creek's motion to intervene and submit affidavits.
The Madills filed their last motion for reconsideration on the single issue of whether the 1901 road acceptance had been recorded. The district court ruled against them. The Madills dropped their claim for a private easement across the Guest Ranch, which allowed the District Court to enter its final judgment. The district court awarded the Ranch Owners attorney fees against Lemhi County for defending against the motion to set aside the stipulation agreement. The Road Users filed their joint notice of appeal.
The Road Users maintain correctly that the same standard of review should be used by this Court as the trial court when reviewing the grant of a summary judgment motion. Stafford v. Klosterman, 134 Idaho 205, 998 P.2d 1118 (2000). However, they argue that the trial court erred in basing its memorandum decisions on discretion. They also maintain that the parties did not rely on the same facts in their respective motions for summary judgment, so the Court cannot treat the case as if it were based on stipulated facts. However, they concede that the essential facts are not in conflict.
The Ranch Owners respond that not all appellants have standing to raise all of the issues in the appeal, maintaining that the Madills have standing to raise the public road issues; the Friends have standing to address intervention; and the County has standing on the settlement stipulation issue and attorney fees. Further, they assert that the proper standard of review was employed by the trial court and that a de novo standard is proper for the review of the summary judgment decision as well as for the attorney fee issue. However, they argue that the stipulation and intervention issues were decided in the trial court's discretion and should be reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard.
The district court determined that when a request to deny judgment based on a stipulation signed by two other parties is before the court the request is for the equitable remedies of injunctive and declaratory relief which are within the court's discretion. Regardless of this characterization, the district court made determinations that there were no material issues of fact as to the County's interest in the road, and that as a matter of law the County had no interest in the road, and that even if it did, that interest was abandoned. The district judge used a summary judgment motion standard despite discussing discretion. On this question there appear to be no issues of material fact. Therefore, this Court will exercise free review to determine if there was a valid contract.
The Ranch Owners argue that the District Court's Memorandum Decisions on the Motions to Reconsider should not have been made based on the discretion. There is little effect to this argument since the underlying issue is whether the motion for summary judgment should have been granted.
When this Court reviews the district court's ruling on a motion for summary judgment, it employs the same standard as the district court's original ruling on the motion. Farmers Ins. Co. v. Talbot, 133 Idaho 428, 431, 987 P.2d 1043, 1046 (1999) (citing Smith v. Meridian Joint Sch. Dist. No. 2, 128 Idaho 714, 718, 918 P.2d 583, 587 (1996); City of Chubbuck v. City of Pocatello, 127 Idaho 198, 200, 899 P.2d 411, 413 (1995)). Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. I.R.C.P. 56(c); Mutual of Enumclaw v. Box, 127 Idaho 851, 852, 908 P.2d 153, 154 (1995).
The procedural decision to grant a motion to intervene is governed by Rule 24 of the Idaho Rules of Civil Procedure, and "a trial court's decision to grant or deny a motion to intervene is a matter of discretion." Western Community Ins. Co. v. Kickers, Inc. 137 Idaho 305, 306, 48 P.3d 634, 635 (2002). The district court applied Rule 24 and correctly deemed that it had discretion to determine intervention and admission of affidavits under I.R.C.P. 56(c).
The district court properly decided the request for attorney fees against Lemhi County under Idaho Code § 12-117, which applies to "civil judicial proceeding[s] involving as adverse parties a state agency, a city, a county or other taxing district and a person." This Court has established that review of § 12-117 attorney fees shall be decided by free or de novo review. See Rincover v. State Dept. of Finance, Securities Bureau, 132 Idaho 547, 549, 976 P.2d 473, 475 (1999)
.
The standing argument is a fine point that does not merit much discussion. Counsel for the Madill family wrote the briefs on behalf of all appellants and served as co-counsel to the other appellants for purposes of this appeal. At least one appellant has standing on each issue raised in the appellants' brief, which point the Ranch Owners concede. All issues may be heard even if an individual issue may only relate to one appellant. That all appellants may not have standing as to all issues in a brief written on behalf of all appellants is of no consequence if at least one appellant, as is the case, has standing for each issue argued.
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